Heralds Digest

  “Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.” ‭‭II Corinthians‬ ‭1:21-22‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ Without suffering and the trials of faith, it would have been difficult for believers to appreciate the value of the Lord’s seal. Since the body cherishes pleasure, comfort, and convenience, the enemy have often used the withdrawal of these privileges to break believers’ confidence in God. Therefore, it takes the grace of God and faith to deny the flesh its desirable pleasures. Obviously, the crisis of faith will dangle several promises of establishment, promotion, and prosperity for the body at the expense of the soul. Unfortunately, these tainted promises come mostly from respectable sources and authority. But as Apostle Paul admonished believers at Corinth, God is the only Source of believer’s establishment through His grace and the seal of the Holy Spirit. Most times, this seal is perfected ...

“Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong. Let all that you do be done with love.” I Corinthians‬ ‭16:13-14‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ Distraction from the real fight has always been an ageless strategy of the enemy against the people of God. He knows that the fundamental truth in all matters of life will lead believers into a fight with him and all his strategies. Therefore, the enemy will always attempt to distract the mind against a direct confrontation with himself. For example, the enemy had thrown the spirit of division and disunity into the Pentecostal assembly at Corinth, creating factions, suspicions, bitterness, and rivalries against the leading parties. But Apostle Paul apparently admonished the brethren to replace the fist fight (using human resources, strategies, positional privileges, and material influences) with faith fight: (1) Watch all activities and engagements in your relationship prayerful; (2) Stand fast, and without entertaining distraction from the original plan and v...

  “And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”‭‭ 1 Corinthians‬ ‭13:13‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ Sometimes, it is difficult to understand the distinguishing context between faith , hope , and love . Perhaps if we can define faith as the evidence in God’s ability, and hope as the confidence in our ability to use faith , we might just define love as the willingness to freely share our faith and hope with others, even when they seem unworthy. It implies that hope is a derivative of faith , while love is a derivative of both faith and hope . Therefore, we can exercise both faith and hope without love ; but no one can have love without both faith and hope . “ And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love” . Love is God’s testing ground or theatre for the demonstration of believer’s faith and hope . Little wonder why relationships with people in our lives suffer because there is no true love? When we claim excellent fai...

  “In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”” I Corinthians‬ ‭11:25‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ The basis of the institution of the Lord’s Supper is the remembrance of the Lord’s sacrifice for the disciples’ salvation. The Saviour’s blood was atoned as a sacrifice for sin. Even though it was the Saviour’s sacrifice for service to humanity, the institution of its remembrance came at the end or towards the end of service. Every service in life attracts sacrifice; but a focus on the sacrifice always distracts laudable attention from the ongoing service. Whereas, all service sacrifices can be treated as privileges on the basis of the Saviour’s sacrifice. The same sacrifice by the Saviour still provides abundant grace, peace, and joy for both weary and vibrant soldiers of the Cross on the service lane. The only evidence of every disciple’s remembrance of the Saviour’s sacrifice is throu...

  “Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.” ‭‭I Corinthians‬ ‭10:11‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ The wilderness experience of the Israelites provided a vivid interplay of God’s mercy and love in the midst of the people’s stubbornness and mistrust. That in spite of the riches of God’s goodness and provisions, He wasn’t so pleased with most of the people’s rebellion and backsliding. Even though the story isn’t different today (and probably even worse), it is instructive to note that God was mindful of the peculiarities of this end-time generation even while dealing with the past generation. Men of God in the past generation were purposefully inspired to document those experiences for the admonition of the present generation. And where are the men of God of this generation and their mindfulness, while dealing with the people in their lives and ministries? Not many people are conscious of being mindful of writin...

  “But as God has distributed to each one, as the Lord has called each one, so let him walk. And so I ordain in all the churches.” ‭‭I Corinthians‬ ‭7:17‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ There is no doubt that the family is the smallest unit of the church; while the state or society is a reflection of orderliness in the church. While a concerned reflection on disorderliness in the church quoted that “ Prayer is no substitute for work; equally true is it that work is no substitute for prayer ”, Paul recommended orderliness in walk or work for every believing member of a family unit as…’ so let him walk’. Unfortunately, the alarming disrespect for family institutions and the decadence in the characters of churchgoers have instructed that the passing down of church creed or doctrines to members cannot substitute leadership by example. Therefore, like Paul today, leaders must learn how to walk their scriptural convictions right from the family unit to orderly ordain the church prayerfully.

  “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.” ‭‭I Corinthians‬ ‭3:16-17‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ The saying that ‘ignorance is not a tenable excuse in a court of law’ is always true, especially as the abuse of intellectual property attracts grave consequences. Unfortunately, life readily goes on probably well with several abuses until someone is caught to serve as scapegoat. Now, beyond the ownership rights by creativity, believers are often ignorant of the fact that they are God’s special patent by redemption. When the world imposes its styles, opportunities, ambition, and purposes on us, do we often respond to self with “ Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you” ? For the church at Corinth, they struggled with their rights to self-associate or self-segregate, engage or disengage, and probabl...